A decade

It's an anniversary today for me.  I've worked with the same employer for a decade now.  A decade. 10 years.  Wow.

So I started there when I was 22, and I'm now 32.  I know the passage of 10 years might not seem that long, but it's massive when you look at the ten years between 12 and 22 years old.  Back when I was 12, I was in 7th grade in Las Vegas.  My main responsibility was remembering my locker combination.  10 years zoom by, and at 22 years old I was married, owned a home, and started a full-time job at my employer.  The passage of those ten years encapsulated junior high, moving to a different state, high school, college, and reaching milestones for dating, voting, driving, and drinking.

Of course the last 10 years haven't been as change-filled for me other than becoming a parent.  But it's weird to think that in the 10 years I've been working there, other people in this world were 12 years old (children) when I started and now are 22 years old (full-fledged adults).  I've seen co-workers' kids grow up in the blink of an eye, seeing them go through tragedy, marriage/divorce, retirement, etc.

I think of that sitcom The Wonder Years that premiered in 1989.  It was set 20 years prior, so the opening show was from 1969.  It's hard to acknowledge that the show could appear in 2009 and be set back in 1989, and I would remember everything it talked about.  At the time that I watched the show, the 1960s seemed SO long ago and I couldn't fathom living in a time that was so different.  Of course the big intent with the show was that being a teenager was still being a teenager regardless of the time period.  Yeah, teenagers today have all those technology gadgets that weren't around or as popular way back when, but their feelings and emotions are much like that those teenagers in the 80s or even the 60s.

I see I've departed from my 10th anniversary work post.  Back on track, Ms. Blog Author. I never imagined that I would be working in the same place now when I started 10 years ago.  Having never even lived somewhere for more than a handful of years, I couldn't comprehend actually working in the same place for a decade.  On the plus side, I've learned a lot and had up to 10 years of friendships with people that I would have not otherwise had.  I do wonder if there were opportunities I have missed out on career-wise by sticking with the same employer.  I'm pretty sure I have, but those opportunities would have had corresponding negative attributes - that I am sure of.   Who knows what the next work decade will hold?  I may be laid off and have to change fields, I may choose to change fields willingly, or I may stay put.  It's hard to predict now how things will pan out, but for what it's worth, it's been awesome to have a certain steadiness to my life in the past 10 years and to work for a great organization full of great people.